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Appendices

COL Applications

Nuclear Power in the USA Appendix 3

(Updated 31 August 2012)

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has made provision for companies to apply for combined construction and operating licences (COLs) for new nuclear power plants, with costs being shared by DOE (see page on US Nuclear Policy). COL applications for 26 new nuclear reactors at 17 sites had been submitted to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by mid-2009. The NRC expects applications for a further seven reactors by 2010.

COL applications are lodged with a particular design and site nominated, though the design certification need not be complete. The NRC is expected to take at least three years to review each COL application, although the NRC estimates 42 months for processing the first few applications.

Most of the COLs are for plants in regulated electricity markets, where state government and regulators allow utilities to adjust rates so that they can recoup financing costs of new plants over a longer period before the plants become operational. This lowers the overall cost of each new plant and, ultimately, the price of electricity to the consumer. Elsewhere, merchant plants are without regulated cost recovery and must bear all financing costs as part of the capital commitment, to be recovered after the plant becomes operational.

NuStart Energy Development

NuStart Energy Development was formed in 2004 to use the NRC's licensing process for obtaining a combined construction and operating licence for an advanced nuclear power plant, and to complete the design engineering for two reactor technologies. The consortium comprises ten major utilities brought together by Entergy and representing more than half of the US nuclear plants.a It also involves vendors Westinghouse and General Electric, and set out to pursue the Westinghouse AP1000 and GE's ESBWR technology options. NuStart was headed by an Exelon senior executive. In May 2005, it signed an agreement with the DOE to split the estimated $520 million cost of completing detailed engineering work on one of the two designs.

In September 2005, NuStart identified Entergy's Grand Gulf site for an ESBWR reactor and Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) Bellefonte site for two AP1000 reactors. Entergy submitted the application for Grand Gulf in February 2008 and, in September 2008, submitted a further application, also referencing the ESBWR design, for its River Bend site. However, early in 2009, Entergy announced it was reviewing its choice of reactor technology and asked the NRC to suspend its review of its COL applications until it had re-evaluated alternative technologies. The project is now suspended for several years. The COL application for the AP1000 units at Bellefonte was submitted by TVA in October 2007, but then deferred (see TVA-led consortium below). NuStart was wound up in mid 2012 after the first reactors were licensed at Vogtle.

Dominion-led consortium

The second consortium is led by Dominion and originally included Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL), Hitachi and Bechtel. It started to pursue AECL's ACR-700 option, developed from the successful CANDU-6 heavy-water design but with light water cooling. Hitachi and Bechtel were key contributors to the successful completion of recent CANDU plants in China. However, in January 2005, AECL and Hitachi were replaced by General Electric and the ESBWR became the favoured technology. The reason given for this was NRC indication that certification of the ACR design would be very slow, whereas that of the US technology - developed from designs already approved - would be much quicker.

In April 2005, Dominion signed an agreement with the DOE to split the estimated $500 million cost of its COL work on the ESBWR. Then in 2007, GE and Hitachi formed the GE Hitachi partnership, bringing that Japanese expertise back into play. In October 2007, NuStart announced that it was working with Dominion on developing the ESBWR reference application for the North Anna station and, in November 2007, a COL application for an ESBWR at North Anna was filed. About then, the NRC awarded an early site permit for North Anna (with no reactor type specified).

In 2009, Dominion Virginia Power said that it had been unable to negotiate a contract with GE Hitachi, so launched a competitive bidding process, as a result of which the Mitsubishi APWR was selected in May 2010. This required an amendment to the COL application and some delay in its processing, so that it is not due to be complete until July 2013, with the public hearing in November.

TVA-led consortium

In addition to being a member of NuStart, TVA formed its own consortium consisting of TVA plus Bechtel, Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas and USEC, as well as vendors Toshiba and GE. The consortium carried out a $4 million feasibility study, half funded by the DoE, into constructing two GE ABWRs on the Bellefonte site and found that it could be done in 40 months at a cost of $1611/kWe (at 1,371 MWe) and $1535/kWe (at 1,465 MWe).1 However, TVA rejected the proposal, apparently because it believed they would be the only ABWR units in the USA. The 1,350 MWe ABWR already has design certification in the USA and was the first Generation III reactor design to enter service (at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Japan).

While TVA went ahead with the COL application with NuStart for two AP1000 reactors at Bellefonte, the company was considering other options for the site. The site has two unfinished 1,213 MWe PWR units, unit 1 being about 55% complete, and unit 2 less so. In April 2006, TVA requested that the NRC terminates the construction permits of the two unfinished units, a request that was granted in September of that year. But in August 2008, citing changing power-generating economics, TVA stated that completing the Bellefonte reactors might be viable and requested that the NRC reinstate the permits. In February 2009, the NRC authorized the reinstatement of the construction permits but denied TVA's request to reinstate the classification of the reactors as 'deferred'. Instead, the reactors were classified as 'terminated', meaning that TVA would first need to re-establish certain physical conditions and records quality of the units before the NRC would change the status back to 'deferred'.

In August 2009, TVA announced it was preparing a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which would evaluate three scaled-back options for the Bellefonte site: completing one of the partially completed units; constructing a single AP1000 unit; and taking no action to operate a nuclear unit at the site.2

In August 2011 TVA decided to proceed with completing unit 1 at a cost of about $4.9 billion rather than building a new AP1000 unit.

UniStar Nuclear

UniStar Nuclear started in September 2005 as a joint venture between Areva (France) and Constellation Energy to develop a business framework for building at least four of Areva's US-EPR nuclear units in North America. Later, in July 2007, Constellation Energy and Electricite de France (EdF) formed a joint venture holding company, UniStar Nuclear Energy, focused on the potential deployment of a fleet of new nuclear power plants in North America. EdF paid $350 million cash upfront and pledged up to $625 million in total to UniStar Nuclear Energy, while Constellation Energy contributed the subsidiary companies and interests from its pre-existing UniStar Nuclear line of business. UniStar submitted the first part of a COL application for a US-EPR at the Calvert Cliffs site in July 2007 and the second part in March 2008.

After the DOE put unrealistic terms on a loan guarantee offer for Calvert Cliffs to Unistar3, Constellation agreed to sell its half share in Unistar to EDF for $140 million4. Some $817 million had been invested by both companies in Calvert Cliffs 3 to that point. Unistar will own the site for Calvert Cliffs 3 as well as a potential fourth reactor there, and other sites at the Nine Mile Point and RE Ginna nuclear power plants. While EDF through Unistar may pursue the construction of Calvert Cliffs 3, it would still need to find a US-based partner before the NRC could grant a COL. Under the US Atomic Energy Act, the NRC may not issue any commercial licences to an entity 'owned, controlled or dominated' by a foreign company or government. (As a result of the agreement between EDF and Constellation, the EDF share of Constellation Energy dropped to 6%, and it continued to own 49.99% of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group.) In August 2012 the NRC said it would terminate the Calvert Cliffs 3 COL application in 60 days unless Unistar became majority US-owned by then.

NRG Energy and Nuclear Innovation North America

In mid-2006, NRG Energy announced plans to build 8 GWe of baseload capacity across the US over the next decade, notably including two 1358 MWe ABWR nuclear units from Toshiba at its South Texas Project (STP) site, coming on line 2014-15. [NRG Energy (44%) and CPS Energy (40%) are the main shareholders in STP.] The new build project originally had NRG and CPS as 50:50 joint venturers, but after reappraisal by CPS it reduced its share to 7.625%, the balance being a new NRG partnership: NINA (see below). Some of this share may be sold to others, and Tepco had been mentioned as a likely partner.

The new STP expansion would be a merchant plant. In 2006 the project cost was estimated at $5.2 billion but, by June 2009, the price was quoted as $10 billion, or $13 billion with financing charges.b Japan's Tepco, the most experienced operator of ABWRs, agreed to assist NRG Energy and STP Nuclear Operating Co with these. NRG Energy aims to reduce dependence on natural gas and reduce the carbon intensity of its baseload fleet by 20-25%. This is the most conservative equipment choice among potential new nuclear build in USA, reflecting the fact that such ABWR units are well proven, four of them having been operating in Japan for up to ten years, and they are fully certified in the USA. Most of the rest of the baseload capacity is to be coal-fired. The company was the first to apply for a COL, in September 2007.

In March 2008, NRG formed a partnership with Toshiba to market the ABWR in North America. Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corp received a 12% stake in Nuclear Innovation North America LLC (NINA), in return for a $300 million investment over six years. Half of this investment is to support the proposed new ABWRs at South Texas Project (STP 3 and 4) through NINA Investments Holdings. The other half is for new ABWR projects in North America with other potential partners.

In August 2009, NRG Energy signed provisional agreements for long-term sale contracts (20 to 40 years) for more than half of the power from the new South Texas units, which will greatly assist financing them. In May 2010, NINA agreed with Tepco (which has been a technical consultant to the project since 2006) to take a 10% share in NINA for $155 million, subject a loan guarantee from the US government. The sum included an option enabling Tepco to take a further 10% for $125 million within 12 months. With the initial Tepco equity, STP 3&4 shares would be: Tepco 9.2375%, NRG Energy 73.1610%, Toshiba 9.9765% and CPS Energy 7.6250%.

However, in April 2011 NRG announced that it would pull out of the project, since the Fukushima accident "has introduced multiple uncertainties around new nuclear development in the United States which have had the effect of dramatically reducing the probability that STP 3 and 4 can be successfully developed in a timely fashion." NRG offered to help reconfigure the partnership but would write off $331 million of NINA assets funded by NRG plus $150 million contributed by Toshiba. In October 2011 Platts quoted NINA equity as 89.5% NRG and 10.5% Toshiba American Nuclear Energy Corp, which was then providing most of the STP development funds.

NINA has told NRC that a DOE loan guarantee would result in roughly two-thirds of the first-lien debt on the two-reactor project being provided by the US Federal Finance Bank. About one-third of the first-lien debt would come from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation owned by the Japanese government, or from commercial banks insured by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance.

Comanche Peak Nuclear Company

Another partnership was formed between Luminant (a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings, formerly TXU) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in February 2009. Luminant holds an 88% ownership share in Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Company and MHI a 12% share. The joint venture was set up to fund project development costs during the period preceding the issuance of the COL for two US-Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (US-APWR) units at Comanche Peak (units 3 and 4). Luminant submitted the COL application in September 2008, but it is not due to be complete until June 2013, with the public hearing in November.

Further COL applications

Several other COL applications have been received by the NRC. Duke Energy lodged a COL for two Westinghouse AP1000 units at William States Lee III, a new site near Charlotte in Cherokee County, South Carolina; South Carolina Electricity & Gas for two AP1000 units also in South Carolina (at its Virgil C. Summer nuclear site); Southern Nuclear Operating Company for two AP1000 units at its Vogtle site in Georgia; and Progress Energy for four AP1000 units – two at its Shearon Harris site in North Carolina and two at its new site in Levy County, Florida. Also in Florida, Florida Power & Light applied in June 2009 for a COL for two AP1000 reactors at the Turkey Point site.

For the ESBWR, in addition to Dominion's North Anna application and the two suspended Entergy applications for Grand Gulf and River Bend, the NRC has received two other applications: Detroit Edison lodged an application for an ESBWR at its Fermi plant in Michigan and Exelon for two ESBWR units at a new site in Victoria County, Texas. However, in February 2009, the NRC review of this application was suspended and Exelon then said it had chosen the ABWR design, to be built by GE Hitachi6. Then, citing adverse economic conditions, Exelon withdrew its COL application and instead submitted an early site permit application in March 2010.7 This in turn was withdrawn in August 2012, and all work on the project ceased.

For the US-EPR, in addition to UniStar's Calvert Cliffs application, the NRC received COL applications for three more US-EPRs: at AmerenUE's Callaway site in Missouri (application submitted July 2008 but suspended June 2009); at Constellation's Nine Mile Point site in New York (submitted September 2008 and then partly suspended); and at PPL's Bell Bend site, a new site adjacent to PPL's Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania (submitted October 2008).

In June 2009, Duke Energy, Areva, UniStar Nuclear Energy, USEC, and the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI) announced the formation of the Southern Ohio Clean Energy Park Alliance, which would investigate the feasibility of building a 1600 MWe US EPR at the DOE's Portsmouth site in Piketon, Ohio8. The reactor would form part of a "clean energy park demonstration project" which replaces a lot of Duke's coal-fired plant in the state. It would be a regulated generator, not a merchant plant, enabling it to be funded from rates before it is finished, thus diminishing the overall cost. For licensing support the new plant would come under the UniStar arrangement. USEC would handle site issues and would be involved in any early site permit application. In December 2010 Duke said it did not expect to lodge an ESP application until after September 2013.

Outside the mainstream utilities, Alternate Energy Holdings Inc (AEHI) proposed a US-EPR nuclear unit near the town of Hammett in Elmore County, in southwest Idaho. Unistar Nuclear initially agreed to assist AEHI with the approval and construction process for the reactor, but this agreement lapsed. In its grand plan, the project would be a key part of the proposed $4.5 billion Idaho Energy Complex, which would provide electricity for local farm co-op irrigation, but with the majority of output being sold in the national energy market and the waste heat being used to co-generate ethanol. In June 2007, AEHI announced that Cobblestone Financial Group provided a letter of intent to fund 100% of the Idaho Energy Complex, which at that time was estimated at $3.5 billion. The target date for submitting a COL application was moved to 2011. Meanwhile, AEHI said it had gained the support of local Native American tribesmen for the plant. However, in December 2010, the US Securities and Exchange Commission brought fraud charges against AEHI and sought a court order to freeze the assets of the company and two of its senior executives. Meanwhile the preferred technology had become APR1400. It has dropped off the NRC schedule.

A second company, MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Co, was also looking at nuclear possibilities in Idaho but decided not to proceed.

UniStar is also working with Amarillo Power towards submitting an application for two US-EPRs at an undisclosed site in near Amarillo, Texas. Formed by Amarillo commercial and residential developer George Chapman in December 2005, Amarillo Power (originally named Pleasant Valley Power) had planned to submit an early site permit application for two ESBWRs by the end of 2007. In March 2007, Amarillo Power decided to switch the proposed reactor design to the US-EPR and, in May 2008, UniStar told the NRC that a COL application for the Amarillo site had been delayed until late 2009. It has not yet emerged, and the project has apparently lapsed.

In October 2007, Transition Power Development (TPD) was established by EnergyPath Corporation to develop a nuclear plant in Utah. TPD wrote to the NRC in January 2008, saying it intends to submit an early site permit application and/or a COL application for a two-unit Blue Castle Generation Project by April 2010. This now looks like an ESP application in 2013, for one reactor. In March 2008, Kane County Water Conservancy District applied to permit the use of 36.5 gigalitres water per year for the project. The water rights had previously been approved for the abandoned Kaiparowits coal-fired power project. In April 2008, EnergyPath Corporation signed an agreement with Emery County for an option to buy land a few miles west of the town of Green River, where the Mancos Hills (or Green River) industrial park is planned. The business case appears to depend on electricity sales to California.

Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) has set up B&W Modular Nuclear Energy LLC to market the mPower small modular reactor design. The company intends to apply for design certification in 2013, and a combined construction and operating licence (COL) application for TVA's Clinch River site in 2012, followed by construction start in 2015 and operation of the first unit in 2018.

Ameren Missouri which had been interested in building an EPR at Callaway in Missouri is now considering building five Westinghouse small modular reactors there.

Advance orders for heavy forgings

Several companies have ordered heavy forgings and other long lead time equipment for building new plants, in advance of specific plans or approvals. Some have even proceeded to full engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreements while the relevant COL applications are being processed.

In 2006, Areva (for the UniStar Nuclear joint venture) ordered heavy forgings from suppliers in Japan and France in anticipation of US orders for new US-EPR reactors – evidently for Constellation at Calvert Cliffs and AmerenUE at Callaway (although plans to the latter have since been suspended). Areva also arranged with Babcock & Wilcox in Virginia to supply major EPR components such as steam generators and pressure vessels. In May 2007, AmerenUE contracted with Areva for heavy forgings from Japan, to be delivered in 2010-11.

In 2006, GE Energy arranged production slots for forgings from Japan Steel Works for ESBWR and ABWR units. In April 2007, Dominion contracted with it – now GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy – for major ESBWR components such as large forgings and other nuclear and turbine island parts for North Anna, and in July Entergy signed up for ESBWR components for either Grand Gulf or River Bend. Then in December, Exelon Nuclear ordered ultra-large forgings, reactor pressure vessels and steam generators to keep its options open for two ESBWR units in Texas. These moves will put them in front of any supply bottlenecks when orders are confirmed.

In April 2008, the AP1000 consortium of Westinghouse and the Shaw Group signed an EPC contract with Georgia Power (subsidiary of Southern Nuclear Operating Company) for two AP1000 nuclear units at the existing Vogtle site in Georgia. It already has two 1,215 MWe reactors on the site. The units are expected to enter commercial operation in 2016 and 2017, and were awarded the first federal loan guarantee in February 2010.

Six weeks later Westinghouse and Shaw signed a second EPC contract with South Carolina Electricity & Gas and Santee Cooper to build two AP1000 reactors at their VC Summer site in South Carolina, which already has one 966 MWe unit. The total cost of $9.8 billion includes forecast inflation and owners' costs for site preparation, contingencies and project financing, all of which would approximately double the bare plant costs. The units are expected to enter commercial operation in 2016 and 2019.

At the end of December 2008 Westinghouse and Shaw signed a third EPC contract with Progress Energy Florida to build two AP1000 units on a greenfield site in Levy county, Florida. The contract is for $7.65 billion ($3462/kWe), of an overall project cost of about $14 billion, including land, inflation, site preparation, licensing, financing costs and fuel. A further $3 billion will be required for transmission infrastructure. The reactors would go on line over 2016-18. A final decision to build will be made when the NRC issues a COL for the project, in about 2012.

In 2007, Toshiba signed a project services agreement with NRG Energy and South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. (STPNOC, which operates South Texas Project 1 and 2) for two 1,358 MWe ABWR units at the South Texas site. NRG ordered heavy components for the plant including a reactor pressure vessel. In February 2009, an EPC contract was signed with STPNOC, which was acting as the agent for CPS Energy and Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA, the 88:12 partnership between NRG Energy and Toshiba). CPS and NINA were 50:50 partners in the planned new units, but following a dispute the respective shares are now 7.625% and 92.375%.

Toshiba said that at mid-May 2008 it had orders for six Westinghouse AP1000 reactors and for two ABWR units in the USA. The former appear to be: Georgia Power/Southern Nuclear – two Vogtle units; South Carolina Electricity & Gas – two Summer units; and Progress Energy – two Levy County units. The ABWR units would be for NRG's South Texas plant.

Further Information

Related information pages

Notes

a. The NuStart consortium was formed in March 2004 by five utilities and two vendors: Constellation Generation Group, a subsidiary of Constellation Energy; EDF International North America, a subsidiary of EDF; Entergy Nuclear; Exelon Generation; Southern Company; Westinghouse Electric Co; and GE Energy. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Florida Power & Light Company, Duke Energy and Progress Energy joined soon after, followed by South Carolina Electric & Gas, a subsidiary of SCANA Corporation, about two years later. Late in 2007 Constellation Energy left it to pursue its Unistar plans with EDF, and DTE subsidiary Detroit Edison replaced it. NuStart was wound up in mid 2012 after the first reactors were licensed at Vogtle. [Back]

b. Cost estimates for the two proposed ABWRs at South Texas Project have increased. A January 2007 fact sheet published by NRG, titled South Texas Project Unit 3&4 Expansion - Powering Texas with NRG, says the units would "cost more than $6 billion." And in June 2009, following three years of detailed study of various energy options, CPS Energy (a 50:50 partner with NRG in South Texas Project 3 and 4) said the total estimated cost of the two units was $10 billion, or $13 billion with financing. CPS Energy recommended pursuing the project, but added that it was exploring ownership options that would trim the company's share to $5.2 billion with financing.5 [Back]